Guild Wars 2

Anyone else get the impression they selected their preview material with the intention of causing drama?

I remember watching a stream not too long ago where they were discussing their plans for gaining and maintaining their player base. The stream was primarily focused on PvP and esport, but the basic gist of the stream all seemed to revolve around the theory: Drama = high player retention.

After watching the preview, then going back to the “Profession Balance Goals for winter 2016” post, I had a tinfoil-hat moment comparing what they chose to preview with what they outlined in the post.

An example that stood out to me:

Ele: “the scepter.. will be receiving some positive quality-of-life modifications.”

Mes: “we’ll be improving upon the scepter, which will be receiving updates through skills, functionality, and traits.”

Necro: No mention of Scepter changes…

Preview day rolls around and they choose ridiculously marginal (I’d even argue inconsequential) changes to preview for Mes and Ele … Then share something actually impactful for Necro’s scepter.

Do I actually believe they did it intentionally? No, I think it was just rushed/completely poor judgement by whoever was responsible for creating the preview outline.

Conspiracy theories are fun to discuss, though. So, I decided to share the idea anyways.

So…kittening off your players is healthy for the game? Assume you’re right, that it was their intention, and it’s true that creating drama would allow you to retain more players. I’d imagine that a population of salty players would cause incredible amounts of toxicity which would, in turn, drive more people away.

And is it not possible for them to retain more players who are happy…?